encouraging words for a new dachshund owner?

[desertchix]

so my daughter and i just rescued a dachshund pup. he's 6 or 7 months old. not small but still teething. i brought him home for the first time and the first thing he saw was the chicken run. he perked right up but we brought him straight inside. anyway, i agreed to keep him before i looked into the breed and realized what small prey hunters they are. my chickens are pretty secure in their yard, after all we do coyotes and bobcats and neighborhood strays who want to eat the ladies. but am i making a terrible decision keeping this dog (that we are already in love with)? it seems to me there are a lot of dachshund owners here on BYC and i guess i am just looking for advice. all of you out there who have doxies that live in peace with your chickens: did you train them or are they naturally docile? any input appreciated.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Yes, little hunters they are! But you have the advantage of having acquired him at a young age so that will help with your training. I've not had Doxie's but we've raised and trained our own ranch dogs for many years. You will just have to work with him every day and see how things go and how his temperment is. Take him with you whenever you go out to the coop, on a leash, so he can be around the birds every day but still under your control. This way you can easily stop bad behavior the moment it happens. As he gets older, and the birds are not a new and exciting thing anymore, he may become more trustworthy. If you continue to see high excitement, even after lots of time and training, he may be a dog that will always need to be kept separate from the birds.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

x2 Work on overall good basic training and impulse control training and work on it every single day. My tenants had a dachshund that we trained to be fine around our 5 hens but it did take a little more effort then some of the other dogs I have trained. But, good results in the end.

Once you are confident you have basic training down I would bring the dog out on a leash. Ignoring the birds is the ONLY acceptable behavior. Excited, tense muscles, a fixated glance all get a no. Remove the dog from the yard and start again. Calm indifference is the only thing that gets praised. Work every day until that is the only behavior you get every single time.

Reintroduce the dog any time you get a new bird or add a new bird area like a new coop or brooder. Introduce chicks separately like you are starting from the beginning, because really you are.

 

[dainerra]

all those predators who mentioned? leaving that little guy outside alone could quickly turn into a death sentence for him. Bobcats and coyotes won't turn down a "cocktail wiener"

Honestly, the best and easiest way to keep him AND your birds safe is to let him outside only under supervision.

 

[ChristyAnneCobb]

My doxie mix does great with my chickens. She even plays with them nicely. I've had her since a puppy so they big hens honestly taught her how to play nice. lol
I would only let him around the chickens when you are supervising him though. I never let any of my dogs around my chickens unsupervised. For some breeds the prey drive can never be over written.

 

[hollyclyff]

I just keep my dachshunds separate from my chickens, but mine were already adults when I got the chickens. You may have better luck introducing a puppy to them. Dachshunds aren't always the easiest dogs to train, but they are awesome anyway and I don't think you will regret keeping him even if you can never trust him with the chickens by himself. I won't ever be without at least one.

 

[gryeyes]

I have two miniature dachshunds (one of which is large for a mini-doxie) who idnore the chickens EXCEPT the youngest who has determined his job is to keep the chickens out of the house. He barks at 'em and lunges, to startle them away from the door but not go after them any further. He learned the "leave the chickens alone" rule when I had to work very hard with my older dog (11 years old, nexer saw a chicken in his life until I got my chicks) to break him of chasing the birds. He killed three young birds over a few week's period by chasing them down and then shaking them, breaking their necks.

I then kept him either on a leash with me for training, or on a chain (which he hated) when I was doing chicken chores requiring both hands. Lots of correction on the leash, much yelling "No!" and the like.

Both now can walk through the flock without reacting to the chickens except for tucked tails and avoiding eye contact with any of the birds. Of course it helped that a broody hen attacked him, then the rooster launched at him to bowl him right over with a strike to his side with both feet. I think he got the message from that episode!

 

[desertchix]

wow thank you for all of the responses. i know i would keep the dog even if everyone warned me against it

but with so many others that have made it work, i feel more confident. just to be sure i am going to lay down wire on the ground of the inside of the chicken run. then if he somehow gets a chance to tunnel, he'll end up bumping into more wire on the way up. how fast do they dig anyway?

 

[gryeyes]

No, make an apron on the ground outside the run with your hardware coth. Then bury it. The chickens will want to scratch inside their run, and wire on their run ground will interfere with that behavior. Any predator (doxie or worse) won't have the smarts to dig that far away from the fence, so the wire barrier will serve to prevent breaches. They just don't think, "Hey, maybe I should start out here and dig a two foot tunnel to get under that wire stuff my paws hit!"

 

[jewel1]

I have a long-haired dachshund and he is fine around our new chickens...(we introduced him to them when they were chicks). He mostly ignores them, though every now and then he barks at them when they break the 'rules'...liike getting up on our patio table.

But, a word of warning that dachsies are very food motivated and also love to roll in smelly stuff. So, my challenge when I let my flock out for awhile is to keep him from running into the coop looking for things to eat they may have dropped...and from rolling on a nice, big, smelly chicken poo from time to time. Yuck!